Posts Tagged ‘statue’

The remains of a fallen Crab-apple tree, a vibrant garden and a statue. Great inspiration.

Last summer began the task of taking down an old Crab-apple tree. I did it myself without experiencing any embarrassing events (you know, the types that end up on those funniest video shows). While we dearly missed the beauty and essence of the spring blossoms, the benefit has been a resurgence of flowers in the adjoining bed.

I had been admiring the display of Impatiens at the base of the stump and realized that I better capture this on canvas before the flowers grew too tall. I started working on this in mid-morning, hoping to capture the light on the statue and flowers. Got hung up with the initial drawing/block-in of the statue and then had trouble getting the flower blossoms. Near noon, I realized that it would be best to scrub out the flowers, re-think my strategy and aim to finish the next day.

The delay worked well. I started the next morning with a clear idea of how to execute the painting of the flowers and was able to complete the area enough so that as the sunlight poured over the statue and flowers, I was ready to quickly capture the effect on the canvas.

Within a week, the flowers had grown enough that this design would not have worked.

I had the opportunity to paint at Indian Hill Manor. It is an estate just southwest of Rockford. I must have driven past this place more than a hundred times but never knew it was there. The estate is adjacent to a forest preserve. The property borders an active road, but the trees are thick. Camouflage. I was told that the estate is being kept closed to the general public but will be used for meetings by conservations groups.

I arrived around 8:30am. By the time that I received some introductions and a quickie tour, it was after 10:00am. I still wanted to get some painting in before noon. During my tour, I noticed the beautiful play of light off of the statue near the front door. I set up under the minimal shade of a small tree and got to work.

I took a few minutes to make a few sketches in my sketchbook. Thought that I had the right design. However, as I was completing my block in, I realized that the design would not work. Took a few moments to analyze and determine a more workable solution. Another quick sketch to help lock in the shadows. Wipe off the first block in, sketch the new design onto the canvas and start a new block in. This time, much better. The painting was fun, but the statue took a lot of time. It was a challenge to capture the feel of all the architectural factors and elements and keep them as a background. All of the lines and shadows and details could become a focus if they were allowed to stay sharp and hard. An delicate touch with the brush helped to soften the lines and forms.

Unfortunately, this painting took almost two hours to complete. For such a small painting, that seems too long, but the results made the time investment worth it.